


Broken Cries in Moonlit Skies

by conceptstage



Series: Single Chapter Critical Role [14]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Comfort, I'm feeling a lot of emotions right now, spoilers for episode 69
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 09:43:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19391527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: I wrote this instead of sleeping.Caleb hears noises outside the night after the events of episode 69.





	Broken Cries in Moonlit Skies

Caleb woke up to a crash. He nearly called a spell to his fingers but paused when he realized that he was in the barracks at Bazzozan and the sound was coming from outside. He sat up slowly and looked around. Jester and Nott were wrapped around each other, their cheeks red and only asleep because they had exhausted themselves to the point that even their grief couldn’t keep them awake. Fjord was asleep too but Caleb could tell that he was wracked with dreams, tossing his head back and forth and moving his mouth in silent words. Caduceus was sitting up, awake across the room. He winced when there was another crash.

“Where is Beau?” Caleb asked, softly. 

Caduceus nodded towards the window just as there was another breaking sound. Caleb crawled over to the window and peeked out into the night. The two moons illuminated the world just enough for him to make out a human shape break a chair over her knee and scream in rage.

“ **_Arrrrgh_ ** !”

Caleb sighed and got to his feet, moving as quietly as possible down the ladder. The shop downstairs was empty and he just made his way to the open front door. He stepped out into the night and shivered, remembering that his coat was rolled up upstairs as a makeshift pillow. He walked around the building and paused when he saw the drow shopkeeper standing at the corner, leaning against the wall of his establishment. He looked over when Caleb walked up. “She belong to you?”

Caleb didn’t like that phrasing but he nodded. “She is with me. I am sorry about the broken stuff.”

He shrugged. “It’s trash, it’s fine.”

Beau cried out again and threw a piece of the broken chair as far as she could. It disappeared into the night and someone yelled ‘Ow!’ in the distance.

“Sorry!” Beau yelled aggressively, then she smashed a vase onto the ground.

“You’re going to have to pay for that,” the shopkeeper said.

Caleb frowned. “I thought you said that it was trash.”

“It is. But it’s still my trash.”

Beau karate chopped through a piece of wood that may have once been an old table. Caleb winced. “Start a tab.”

The shopkeeper started walking back inside. “I intend to.”

Beau finally ran out of things to break and just stood in the moonlight, breathing deeply. She tossed back her head and screamed. “ **_Aaaaaarrrrrggggggghhhhhh_ ** !!!” She fell to her knees like the force of her sorrowful yell sapped the energy from her. Caleb hesitated but then started moving towards her. She didn’t look up at him when he got near, but he was being deliberately loud so that he didn’t startle her and end up with a re-broken nose. He put his fist on her shoulder just like he did for Frumpkin vision and she instinctively laid her hand over his. She was still breathing deeply, trying to catch her breath, when she finally turned her face up to look at him. The tear tracks on her face shone in the moonlight.

“I feel so… I feel so hopeless,” she whispered. “What’s the point. Yasha’s fucking gone. Molly’s fucking gone. We can’t protect anybody. Why do we try?”

“I do not know,” he whispered, barely able to hear himself. “I do not know why we try. But I know we must.”

Beau shook her head, letting out a hysterical, joyless laugh. “Why does it always fall on us to do this shit? The gnolls fell on us, we didn’t ask for that. The Iron Shepherds fell on us. Stopping Avantika fell on us, saving Yeza fell on us. Why us?”

“Because we are…” he paused and said the next word with a disbelieving lilt. “... heroes, apparently.”

Beau sniffled and wiped her nose, shaking her head. “No. No, we’re not fucking heroes. Heroes don’t leave their friends behind and run at the first sign of trouble. Heroes would have died down there trying to stop it. A hero would have gone down into that tomb and never see the light of day again. We’re not fucking heroes, we’re cowards.”

“Maybe we are cowards. We probably are.”

They sat in the silence for a moment and then Beau raised an eyebrow at him. “...But…?”

“Oh, there is no but. We are probably cowards.”

Beau continued being quiet for a moment, then she snorted. She slapped her hand over her mouth and started giggling hysterically. “Fuck,” she hissed through uncontrollable laughter. Tears started rolling down her cheeks once more. She had thought she was out. “Fuck you,” but there was no malice, just fear and sadness.

She sighed and got to her feet and then wrapped her arms tightly around him, pulling him close and resting her forehead on his shoulder. Caleb hesitated, but then reached up and sat his hands on her back.

“We will get her back,” he said, though he didn’t really believe it and he was pretty sure that she knew that. “She will come home.”

She sighed against his shoulder. “How much do I owe the drow dude?”

“A couple gold probably, no big deal. Are you ready to go inside?”

“Just a minute.”

He nodded and they stood in the moonlight, mourning the loss of yet another dear friend. 


End file.
